Business Review profiles new Grubb & Ellis president and CEO D'Arcy '83

The Business Review gets a sense of Tom D’Arcy ’83, appointed Grubb & Ellis president and CEO in November, by talking to fellow Bobcat football alum Tim Lyne ’83, executive vice president and partner at CB Richard Ellis New England. Lyne describes his friend and former colleague in commercial real estate as a “great leader” who “engenders a lot of loyalty from the people that work with him. He has a ton of integrity, but keeps it fun.” Business Review reporter Eric Convey writes that the “stakes are high” for Grubb & Ellis. The big California-based real estate services and investment company firm recently recapitalized after a period of disappointing earnings and slumping share prices, raising about $96 million through a special stock sale. D’Arcy, a political science major at Bates, says his mandate for running Grubb & Ellis is to make the operation “lean, profitable, sustainable and competitive.” View story from TheBusiness Review, Jan. 8, 2010.

, said D’Arcy has the right personal traits for his new job.

“He’s a great leader,” said Lyne, executive vice president and partner at CB Richard Ellis New England. “He engenders a lot of loyalty from the people that work with him. He has a ton of integrity, but keeps it fun.”

D’Arcy said a part of the new job that appeals to him is expanding the company’s investment-management operation. Grubb & Ellis has about $6 billion under management.

“That’s a piece of the business we’re really looking to grow,” he said.

As tough as things are in the Boston commercial real estate sector, D’Arcy said, some national perspective shows the region is relatively well off.

“A lot of markets would like to be Boston,” he said.

As for Grubb & Ellis’ Boston outpost, D’Arcy said, “We’re evaluating every market. We have a good, solid team here in Boston.”

But not even the location of the company’s headquarters in Southern California is a sure thing, he suggested.

Asked where he was moving his family to California, D’Arcy replied: “Where the different senior functions are housed is part of the evaluation process. I really don’t have an answer to that right now.”